The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation has announced an investment of $25 million to the Global Fund dedicated to scaling the HIV self-testing method. The fund will be made available to a few countries that will potentially include Nigeria, according to a statement made available to our correspondent on Tuesday.

 

The Foundation’s Executive Director for Adolescence, Mr Miles Kemplay, said, “CIFF is championing HIV self-testing and other methods to promote self-care as one of the most powerful ways for youth, women, and men to take control of their sexual and reproductive health. People deserve the choice to test when they want, where they want and how they want.

“The first step to access the fund will be to engage policymakers and implementers in countries likely to be eligible to motivate them to apply in due course. Once the selection process is complete, the governments of the selected countries will need to develop strategies and operational plans to be able to access financing.”

 

Kemplay added that the impact of self-testing may be greatest in sub-Saharan Africa, which has the largest number of people living with HIV who do not know their status. “The Global Fund partnership is designed to increase funding for country programmes that have ambitious HIV self-testing goals as well as put supportive policies in place for people to easily access self-tests,” the statement said.